Girl’s attitudes and performance in mathematics: a comparative Study between Rural and urban o-level secondary schools in Mara region, Tanzania
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2006
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
The study sought to investigate factors that were thought to contribute to girls` negative attitudes to and poor performance in mathematics. Specifically, the study sought to identify such attitudes among girls in rural and urban secondary school, to determine the kind of school inputs, process and climate variables that might contribute to this; and to compare both rural and urban O-level secondary schools on the matter of attitude and performance. The study involved four O-level secondary schools, which were randomly sampled from Musoma and Bunda Districts in Mara region. The school include Nansimo, Kasoma, Morembe and Mara, the first two from rural locations and the latter from urban locations. The sample consisted of 92 respondents who included 79 students, 9 mathematics teachers and 4 headmasters. Instruments for data collection included Documentary review, Classroom observation checklist, Questionnaires and Interviews. Quantitative and qualitative data were analsed using SPSS computer programme and content analysis respectively. The findings revealed that there is no difference in attitudes between rural and urban secondary schools. The majority of girls in the two locations had positive attitudes towards mathematics. There are differences between rural and urban schools in students` entry qualifications, parents` socio-economic status in terms of their careers, teachers` qualification and adequacy, instructional materials as well as in the impact of evaluation and feedback, school leadership and the use of variety of teaching strategies were more or less the same in the two locations. A Chi-square test shows that the difference in girls` performance in mathematics between rural and urban secondary schools in statically significant since performance in rural secondary schools was poorer than that of urban secondary schools. Based on the findings the overarching conclusion is that girls can perform well in mathematics regardless of school locations, provided that schools provide conducive climate, optimise pedagogical processes and select students on academic merit. Teachers should be adequate, well qualified and motivated to teach. Also instructional and financial resources should be adequate. Further, the school administration, teachers and students should cp-operate towards the common goal of high academic achievement.
Description
Available in print form, East Africana Collection, Dr. Wilbert Chagula Library, Class mark (THS EAF QA39.R84)
Keywords
Women in Mathematics, Education, Secondary, Mathematics, Study and teaching, O-level secondary schools, Mara region
Citation
Rukondo, N. D (2006) Girl’s attitudes and performance in mathematics: a comparative Study between Rural and urban o-level secondary schools in Mara region, Tanzania, Master dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam. Dar es Salaam.